The real cost of a cheaper rent as an expat: commute time versus savings

The most common trade in a Singapore rental search goes like this: the place you want is over budget, so you look further out, find something bigger and cheaper, and feel like you've won.

Sometimes you have. But the saving shows up on your bank statement every month, and the cost shows up in your evenings, where nobody's counting.

It's the trade we talk through most with expat clients, usually in the first conversation. Here's the maths we do, and the checks that go with it.

Put a number on your time

Say moving further out saves you $700 a month. That's $8,400 a year.

Say it also adds 40 minutes each way to your commute. That's 80 minutes a day, and across roughly 230 working days a year, about 300 hours.

Divide one by the other and you're being paid around $28 for every extra hour you spend commuting.

Then ask: would you sell an hour of your evening for $28? Three hundred hours is close to 40 full working days a year.

For some people the answer is yes, and that's a fine decision. The problem is making it without doing the maths.

The costs you don't see

A longer commute tends to bring other costs with it. More taxis when you're late or tired. Eating out more because there's no time to cook. Skipped gym sessions. Social plans you stop making because getting home afterwards is a production.

None of these appear in the rent comparison, but they're real.

Measure door to door, not distance

Five kilometres can take 15 minutes or 50, depending on transfers, the walk to the station and how crowded the trains are. The only reliable test is doing the journey yourself, on a weekday, at the time you'd actually travel.

Do it in the evening too. The morning commute is the one people check. The evening one is the one they feel.

If you're still overseas, you can't do the journey yet. Ask someone who lives here to do it for you, or save the test for your first visit before you sign anything.

Listings give you a distance. They almost never give you a door to door time, so that part is worth building into the shortlist from the start.

If there are two of you

Two commutes change the maths. A location that's perfect for one person can double the other's journey. Look for somewhere that works reasonably for both, rather than perfectly for one.

Add school runs and it gets harder again. Check school bus pick-up times from the address, not just the distance to the school.

When cheaper genuinely makes sense

If you work from home most days, the commute barely matters. If you actually prefer the quieter area, the saving is a bonus. If you're saving hard for a specific goal, or you're here on a short posting, the trade might be exactly right.

Be careful with future train lines

New MRT lines transform neighbourhoods, but completion dates move. If a place only works once a line opens, make sure it opens before your lease ends.

The short version

Work out what you're saving per hour of extra commuting. Test the journey at peak times, both directions. Count both commutes if there are two of you. Then decide with the numbers in front of you.

What we do. We shortlist around where you'll actually be working, so the commute is part of the brief before price is.

If you'd like the commute built into the search from day one, tell us where you'll be working and we'll start there. See how it works on the Doors page, from the search through to the move-out inspection.

Doors by The Yellow Door helps expats find and settle into homes in Singapore, from the search through to the move-out inspection. This article is general information and not legal advice. Rules and rates change, so check the current position with the relevant authority before you act.